Key witness ‘had phoned suspect night she vanished’
A NEW crucial witness in the Madeleine McCann case has been named in Portugal as Diogo Silva.
Silva is said to have called suspect Christian Brueckner shortly before the missing girl was last seen.
Portuguese newspaper Jornal de Noticias said the phone number Brueckner was called from just over an hour before Maddie vanished from her Praia da Luz holiday apartment was registered to Silva.
Detective Chief Inspector Mark Cranwell, from the Met Police Operation Grange taskforce, said a phone believed to have been used by the suspect received a call from another Portuguese mobile which started at 7.32pm and ended at 8.02pm on May 3, 2007.
Madeleine, three, disappeared between 9.10pm and 10pm the same evening.
DCI Cranwell insisted the caller was a key witness. He said: “Any information in relation to these mobile numbers during the spring and summer of 2007 could be critical to this investigation.” The caller is not believed to have been in the Praia da Luz area. But police have established that Brueckner was in the resort when Maddie vanished.
DCI Cranwell said at a press briefing in London: “We know a lot about the suspect, but we need to know more about his movements on the night Madeleine vanished and in the days before and after.
“We know he was in the resort on the night, about an hour before Madeleine was last seen at about 9pm.
“He took a phone call on his Portuguese mobile from another Portuguese mobile. The call lasted half an hour.
“Some people will know the man we are describing today, the suspect in our investigation. I’m appealing to you directly. You may be aware of some of the things he has done.
“He may have confided in you about the disappearance of Madeleine.”
Brueckner spent several years living at a ramshackle farmhouse on the outskirts of Praia da Luz, officials have revealed.
He is thought to have left in about 2005 and used his camper van as a home.
He has also been linked to another property further inland called Escola Velha, where he allegedly used to help its German owner with odd jobs.
Both properties were said to be owned by Britons.